Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Scott Campbell!!!

Thanks to my favorite girl for sending me a link that, when followed, lead me to find the blog of Scott Campbell, art director at Double Fine Productions, creators of successful video games (including the new Brutal Legend you’ve seen all those commercials for) but most importantly, Psychonauts.

Girl linked me here, which has a link crediting the artist, Scott Campbell. One click and scroll down and I realized what I was looking at: the artist responsible for the beloved freakshow that is Psychonauts, one of the greatest games ever (ever!). This is a game that places you in a velvet painting world, disco manse, mega game board, topsy turvy suburbs, and more! It’s incredibly imaginative, challenging, and fun as hell. Though it was undoubtedly collaborative, Scott Campbell’s artistic touch is in every frame. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of playing it, you know the art is some “next level” stuff—not to be down on gaming art at all, but Campbell’s work is really special. Here’s a shot of the gameboard:

And some video of that crazy suburb:

Check out his blog and see for yourself. Much to my chagrin, he was JUST HERE, doing a show at myplasticheart gallery, which I’ve never been to but, having cruised through the other exhibit posters on the website, is now clearly a top priority destination. Since following the links like a madthing (hours!) I’ve looked at just about everything and have a new goal: Own a Scott Campbell print. OMG OMG a goal! I haven’t had one in so long!

Click here to see the Great Showdowns series. I linked directly to my favorite print (the Kurgan! Aliens! OMG!) but the rest are very awesome, too. Click here for his main photostream page to see a wider variety of his work. A quick tour will tell you why I love this guy, but this panel pretty much seals the deal.

And if anything else was necessary to put Scott Campbell on my favorites list, it would have to be this.